Adhesive surface dart and shock absorbing target

ABSTRACT

A target game is provided composed of a missile and a target, each containing respective portions thereof shaped with filamentary hook-like formations. The target is so constructed that a portion thereof is yieldable, permitting the missile to strike same and the hook-like formations thereof to engage and hold those hook-like formations of the target without disengagement due to bounce.

tlnite States Patent [191 Lemelson et a1.

[451 Dec. 31, 1974 ADHESIVE SURFACE DART AND SHOCK ABSORBING TARGET Inventors: Jerome H. Lemelson, 85 Rector St.,

Metuchen, NJ. 08840; Allan M. Elfman, 219 E. 83rd St., New York, -N.Y. 10028 Filed: Jan. 24, 1974 Appl. No.: 436,045

US. Cl. 273/95 R, 273/102 R Int. Cl A63b 71/02 Field of Search 273/95 R, 102 R, 102 B,

273/1065 R, 106.5 A; 46/DIG. 1

References Cited 7 UNITED STATES PATENTS 5/1962 Lemelson 46/DIG. 1

9/1968 Hesidence 273/95 R Primary Examiner-RichardC. Pinkham Assistant Examiner-Marvin Siskind ABSTRACT 5 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures Feld 273/95 R ADHESIVE SURFA CE DART AND SHOCK ABSORBING TARGET SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to new and improved structures in target games, particularly with respect to a target employing a hooking material defining a target surface and adapted to retain a plurality of missiles or darts thereagainst by hooking engagement with filamentary formations protruding from the missile. In particular, the invention employs so called hook and loop textile material known as Velcro manufactured by the American Velcro Corporation having offices in New York City.

In the construction of target games of the type defined in, US. Pat. No. 3,032,345 which utilize respective elements of so called hooking materials which, in a preferred form comprise a brushed nylon pile covering the target and a broken loop textile or plastic sheet material secured to part of the dart or missile and adapted to retain same against the hooking material covering the target, we have discovered that there is a tendency for the dart or missile to bounce off and free itself from holding engagement with the target when the target hooking material is disposed against a wall or a rigid backing. Since this condition decreases the play ing value of the game and frequently results in having to effect a replay or in repeating the projection of the missile at the target, it is highly undesirable. Attempts have been made to overcome the so called bounce effect on the missile by disposing a resilient cellular plastic material between the head ofa dart and the broken hook material thereof. However, this dart construction has a tendency to permit the dart to droop downwardly after it has struck the target, a condition which detracts from the appearance and playing value of the game. I

The instant invention is directed to improvements in the structures of targets used for games of the type described above. Accordingly, it is a primary object of this invention to provide new and improved structures in target games employing targets and missiles having surface engagement elements which hook together.

Another object is to provide a target for use in a game with a missile having hook-shaped elements protruding from its face wherein at least a portion of the target is yieldable to permit the hook-shaped elements thereof to engage and be retained by the hook-shaped elements of the missile without disengagement thereafter by forces due to the bouncing action of the missile against the target.

Another object is to provide improved target structures for use with safety darts, which structures are attractive, relatively simple to produce and provide functional improvements over the prior art.

With the above and such other objects in view as may hereinafter more fully appear, the invention consists of the novel constructions, combinations and arrangements of parts as will be more fully described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, but it is to be understood that changes, variations and modifications may be resorted to which fall within the scope of the invention as claimed.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a face view with a component broken away for clarity of a target coming within the purview of the instant invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side view in cross-section of the target of FIG. 1 showing a dart or missile engaging the target portion thereof at the time of impact;

FIG. 4 is a side view in cross-section of a modified form of the target of FIG. 1.

There is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 a first form of target 10 for use in a dart type of game of skill and composed of a first element 11 illustrated as a frame composed of four separate elements or portions thereof including side frame elements 12 and 13, a top frame element 14 and a bottom frame element 1.5 which are shaped somewhat in the manner of a picture frame. The frame 11 may be made of a plurality of pieces of wood, plastic or metal secured together or it may be produced of a single injection molding. It is illustrated in FIG. 2 as composed of a solid frame element or elements although it may be made of tubular or channel-like formations of different materials.

Disposed completely across the frame and fastened along its border portion 18 to the frame is a rectangularly shaped portion of pile material 17 which is preferably a component of a so called hook and loop fastening material combination. Such a material, as described above, may be formed of a nylon pile textile material which has been brushed in such a manner as to form broken hook-like formations of the nylon filaments thereof which hookingly engage broken loops of a patch 27 of fastening material secured to the head 24 of a dart 22. The material 17 is flexible and is preferably drawn across the frame so as to be disposed substantially flat and in alignment with the front face of the frame as illustrated in FIG. 2. The material 17 is thus maintained by the frame a distance D away from the plane of the rear face of the framewhich face may be supported by a vertical support such as a wall W of a room as illustrated when a loop-like fastener .21 which is secured to the upper frame element 14, is retained by means of a nail or screw F against the wall W.

As a result of disposing the flexible textile material 17 away from the wall, it may be substantially deformed or deflected inwardly towards the wall when a missile 22 strikes same, as illustrated in FIG. 3, thereby yielding sufficiently to permit the hook-like filamentary formations of the material 17 to engage and retain the broken hook formations defining the patch 27 of fastening material secured to the front face 28 of the head 24 of dart 22. Thus,.during the initial stage of impact of the head of the missile against the target, the missile is decelerated in such a manner that the hooking elements thereof and the target engage each other and are not pulled apart as may bethe case if the material 17 were to be secured to a rigid board or directly against the surface of the wall W. In other words, it is noted that depending on the weight and configuration of the missile and the impact force thereof when it strikes the target, sufficient force due to bounce against the rigid backing of the target material may be generated to actuallyforce the multitude of hook-like formations of the target and missile to deform and become released from each other so that the missile merely bounces off the target. The target configuration and structure shown in FIG. 2 will prevent such action from occurring.

In FIG. 4 is shown a modified form of target 30 composed of a first element 31 formed of a sheet of plastic or metal or a molding having a beaded or frame-like border portion 32 surrounding a central portion 33 thereof. The border portion 32 terminates at a rim 34 which extends in a plane which is a distance away from the-central portion 33 permitting the central portion to be deflected, when struck by a missile, towards the surface of the wall W against which the rim 34 is disposed when hung thereon. To effect such hanging, a tab-like formation 35 is integrally formed and extends outwardly from the upper portion of the rim 34 and contains a hole 36 therein which may be utilized to hang the target 30 on a nail or screw.

Secured to the front face of the central portion 33 of the target is a patch or sheet 37 of booking textile material of the type provided in FIGS. 1 and 2. Such textile material may be adhesively bonded or otherwise se-. cured to the front face 36 of the central formation 33 to secure it in place.

If a material such as polystyrene plastic is utilized to form the target element 31 of FIG. 4, it may vary in thickness from about 1/32 inch to l/l6 inch or slightly greaterfor use in a target varying in diameter between 12 inches and 18 inches.

Notation 21 in FIG. 1 refers to indicia such as numbers, lines or other illustrations printed on the front face of the pile textile material 17 to indicate scoring areas thereof. Notation 25 refers to guide fins which are molded integrally with or attached to the rear end 23 of the dart 22 of FIG. 2.

In FIG. 4 is shown a missile in the form of a ball 40 having its outer surface completely covered with broken loop hooking material permitting it to engage and be retained against the surface of the hooking material 37 secured to the central portion 33 of the target element 31.

The ball 40 of FIG. 4 is preferably composed of a light weight spherical base such as a blow molded or injection molded plastic ball or cork ball to the surface of which has been bonded a plurality of sections of broken loop Velcro fastening material. Ten such sections 41 may be die cut from strip Velcro material and adhesively bonded to cover the entire surface ofa ping-pong ballmissile.

In the embodiment of FIG. 4, the first element or target support member 31 may be in the general shape of a disc wherein the border portion 32 thereof is a bead- Iike formation which extends in a closed loop path around the central portion 33 and provides substantial support and stiffening means for the target. For material thicknesses which vary between about 0.025 inch and 0.100 inchacross the central portion of the target support member 31, the diameter thereof may vary from between 10 inches and 24 inches to provide a target with a central portion having sufficient deflectability to serve to prevent missiles or darts such as the illustrated ball 40 from bouncing off the target central portion upon impact.

While the target assembly illustrated in FIGSv 1 and 2 may have an open back if the thickness thereof or the height of the frame is sufficient to prevent detatchment of the missile or dart from the target material 17 due to the effect of bounce if the material 17 deform sufficiently to permit it to engage a wall against which the target is disposed immediately after the missile strikes the target, in FIG. 3 the target is shown as having a rigid backing sheet '19 secured to the rear face of the frame 11 to provide additional stiffening means for the frame. As in the case of the configuration which is open at the back of the frame, between A inch and /2 inch distance should be provided between the material 17 and backing sheet to reduce or prevent the effect of bounce removing the missile from the target material 17.

We claim:

1. A target game comprising:

a missile having at least a portion of its surface defined by a multitude of irregular filamentary formations,

a target adapted to be secured adjacent an upstanding support such as a vertical wall and composed of an assembly including a support,

a sheet of pile textile material having a central target portion and border portions supported by said support and being composed of upstanding hook-like filamentary formations which are adapted to be engaged and retained by the irregular filamentary formations of said missile when said missile is directed at said'target and to removably retain said missile thereagainst in the area of impact,

said central portion of said'sheet of textile material being normally disposed by said support away from the wall' against which said target is supported and being deflectable inwardly towards said wall when .struck by a missile so as to yield during the deceleration of said missile to permit the filamentary hook-like formations of said target and the irregular formations of said missile to engage and become interlocked in a manner such as to retain the two in assembly so as to indicate the location of the portion of the target struck by said missile.

2. A target game in accordance with claim 1 wherein said target support is composed of a rigid frame and said sheet of pile textile material is secured to and stretched across said frame in a manner such that the central portion thereof is normally maintained by said frame away from a surfaceagainst which said frame is disposed. g

3. A target-game in accordance with claim 1 wherein said target support is composed of a sheet-like formation of rigid material supported by a frame-like formation wherein the frame-like formation is relatively stiff and is shaped to be engageable against a supporting surface such as a room wall, said sheet-like formation supporting the central portion of said textile material being inwardly deformable when force is applied thereto so as to permit said sheet of textile material to inwardly yield when struck by said missile.

4. A target game in accordance with claim 1 wherein when said support is disposed against a flat wall, said sheet of pile textile material will-be maintained by said support a distance of at least 4 inch away from the surface of the wall.

5. A target game in accordance with claim 3 wherein said sheet-like formation of rigid material is between 1/32 inch and 1/16 inch thick and said frame-like formation is' at least 12 inches in diameter and the material thereof is such that the central portion of said sheetlike formation will yieldably deflect inwardly when struck by said missile directed thereagainst from a distance. 

1. A target game comprising: a missile having at least a portion of its surface defined by a multitude of irregular filamentary formations, a target adapted to be secured adjacent an upstanding support such as a vertical wall and composed of an assembly including a support, a sheet of pile textile material having a central target portion and border portions supported by said support and being composed of upstanding hook-like filamentary formations which are adapted to be engaged and retained by the irregular filamentary formations of said missile when said missile is directed at said tArget and to removably retain said missile thereagainst in the area of impact, said central portion of said sheet of textile material being normally disposed by said support away from the wall against which said target is supported and being deflectable inwardly towards said wall when struck by a missile so as to yield during the deceleration of said missile to permit the filamentary hook-like formations of said target and the irregular formations of said missile to engage and become interlocked in a manner such as to retain the two in assembly so as to indicate the location of the portion of the target struck by said missile.
 2. A target game in accordance with claim 1 wherein said target support is composed of a rigid frame and said sheet of pile textile material is secured to and stretched across said frame in a manner such that the central portion thereof is normally maintained by said frame away from a surface against which said frame is disposed.
 3. A target game in accordance with claim 1 wherein said target support is composed of a sheet-like formation of rigid material supported by a frame-like formation wherein the frame-like formation is relatively stiff and is shaped to be engageable against a supporting surface such as a room wall, said sheet-like formation supporting the central portion of said textile material being inwardly deformable when force is applied thereto so as to permit said sheet of textile material to inwardly yield when struck by said missile.
 4. A target game in accordance with claim 1 wherein when said support is disposed against a flat wall, said sheet of pile textile material will be maintained by said support a distance of at least 1/4 inch away from the surface of the wall.
 5. A target game in accordance with claim 3 wherein said sheet-like formation of rigid material is between 1/32 inch and 1/16 inch thick and said frame-like formation is at least 12 inches in diameter and the material thereof is such that the central portion of said sheet-like formation will yieldably deflect inwardly when struck by said missile directed thereagainst from a distance. 